Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies

Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies
North American boxart
Developer(s)	Level-5
Publisher(s)	JP Square Enix NA Nintendo PAL Nintendo
Director(s)	Akihiro Hino Jin Fujisawa
Producer(s)	Ryutaro Ichimura
Designer(s)	Yūji Horii Akihiro Hino
Artist(s)	Akira Toriyama
Composer(s)	Koichi Sugiyama
Series	Dragon Quest
Platform(s)	Nintendo DS
Release date(s)	JP July 11, 2009 NA July 11, 2010 EU July 23, 2010 AUS August 19, 2010
Genre(s)	Role-playing video game
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer
Rating(s)	CERO: A ESRB: E10+ PEGI: 12
Media/distribution	Nintendo DS Game Card

Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies (ドラゴンクエストIX 星空の守り人, Doragon Kuesuto Nain Hoshizora no Mamoribito^?) is a role-playing video game for the Nintendo DS released on July 11, 2009 in Japan. It is the ninth and most recent installment in the acclaimed Dragon Quest series created by Yūji Horii. The game was developed by Level-5 and published by Square Enix in Japan and by Nintendo in North America and Europe.^[1] The game was primarily designed around multiplayer gameplay.

Dragon Quest IX marks several firsts for the main series: it is the first to be initially launched for a handheld system; first to have almost no random encounters by allowing players to see enemies on the map (except when sailing); and the first to be designed primarily with the intent of being a multiplayer video game. In addition, it is the first Dragon Quest title to use a graphical menu system in the Japanese-language version.^{[n 1]} Dragon Quest IX was designed to be more difficult than any previous game in the series, including spinoff titles.

The sales of Dragon Quest IX set new records in Japan; these sales helped boost Nintendo's earnings and have impacted future plannings by the company. Dragon Quest IX set a Guiness World Record with its Chance Encounter mode surpassing 100 million people communicating anonymously as reported on May 20, 2010.^[2][3]

Gameplay

Dragon Quest IX continues the Dragon Quest tradition of turn-based combat and is considered harder than its predecessors.^[4][5] The game allows players to have a cooperative wireless multi-player experience with up to four players; it does not, however, feature multi-player capabilities via Nintendo Wi-Fi.^[6] Multiplayer play requires a game cartridge for each player. The game includes only one save slot, whereas most have at least three.^[4][7]

In part due to Dragon Quest IX's design as a multiplayer game, party members consist entirely of characters created and chosen by the player. Unlike previous games, the player has more control over their characters' appearance. While Dragon Warrior III and IV allowed players to choose between playing a hero or a heroine, Dragon Quest IX offers more customization by also allowing players to define characteristics such as hair style and skin tone.^[8] Each character can be customized, both during creation and throughout the game. During character creation selectable features include, gender, hair style and color, eye shape and color, body type, skin tone, and, for characters other than the protagonist, vocation (the game's term for character class). Customizing a character continues into the main game with weapons and armor, now visible during battles and while exploring the world map and towns. Weapons and armor slots include one weapon, a shield, a helmet, body armor, leg armor, gloves, boots, and accessories (rings or amulets, for example).

Each playable character has a vocation that determines his or her stat increases per level, usable weapons and armor, and spells. Six vocations are available early in the game: warrior, mage, priest, martial artist, thief and minstrel. An additional six classes (armamentalist, ranger, gladiator, sage, paladin, and luminary) can be unlocked through successful completion of quests. The protagonist starts as a minstrel, and when additional party members first become available, they can be created with any of the six starting vocations, to have a character become a different vocation the player must talk to jack of all trades or use the sages ability jack's knack. The ability to change a character's active vocation can be unlocked through gameplay. Characters have separate levels and experience totals for each vocation, and a character's stats and spells are based on his or her active vocation. The game also includes a skill system similar to the one in Dragon Quest VIII, each vocation has five skills: one skill exclusive to the vocation, three weapon skills shared with one or more other vocations, and either Shield or Fisticuffs, an unarmed attack. As characters gain levels, they obtain skill points, which can be spent to increase any of the current vocation's skills. Whenever the points invested in a skill reach a certain threshold, a new ability (active command) or trait (passive bonus) is gained, with the 10th and final ability or trait gained at 100 points. In the case of weapon skills, the 100 point trait allows a character to use the relevant weapon with any vocation, while the 100 point shield trait allows any vocation to use shields. Abilities and trait which have been gained through the skill system are carried over to other vocations, as are unspent skill points.

Battle

Battle is conducted from a combination of first and third-person perspectives. The character plans his or her attack from a first person perspective, selecting which opponents to target (including the ability to target specific monsters in a single group) and then switches to a moving third-person view to watch the main character's party and the monsters battle for the round. Combat includes a combo system available both to players and monsters. When two or more identical attacks are performed consecutively on the same opponent the attack damage increases by a multiplier. A two-hit combo receives a 1.1x multiplier (1.2x in the NA and UK version), a three-hit combo a 1.5x multiplier, and a four-hit combo a 2.0x multiplier. Experience points earned from battle are divided amongst all party members based on level, higher level characters receive a greater share of the experience points than lower level characters.

Features

Dragon Quest IX gives the player optional quests to complete during and after the main game. Quests serve as side-stories helping non-player characters around the game's world. Multiple quests can be performed simultaneously; some are interlocking, others unlock stages in fellow quests.^[9] Early quests include gathering magical spring water, slaying monsters and stealing for a fellow thief. Unlike previous Dragon Quest installments, Dragon Quest IX contains many open ended mini-quests. Upon completion of the quests, a "Quest List log," serving as an in-game achievement list.^[10]

In addition, the game features infinitely generating treasure maps where the player can earn treasure and fight monsters not found in the main game.^[11] New weapons, armor, and other items can be created through alchemy. Using an alchemy pot one can mix items with alchemy materials found in treasure chests, the world map, and dropped by monsters. Recipes can be found hidden in bookcases through the world and the player can experiment with new recipes of their own.

Story

Dragon Quest IX begins in the Observatory, the kingdom in the sky where the angelic beings called Celestrians, including the main protagonist, reside. The main character begins as the guardian who has just undertaken protection of Angel Falls, a human village. The Celestrians have been trying for some time to move into the Realm of the Almighty. However, before they can leave, they require a fruit called the fygg. The fruit is very rare, and Yggdrasil, the "World Tree" that it grows on, must be empowered with benevolence, which is spiritual energy that can only be obtained by helping people in the Protectorate, the world of mortals.^[10]

By protecting Angel Falls and earning the gratitude of its people, the main character obtains enough benevolence for the World Tree to produce the fyggs. Just as the Starflight Express that will take the angels to the Realm of the Almighty arrives, the Observatory is attacked from below by a mysterious and powerful force. The force scatters the assembled angels and knocks the fyggs, the Starflight Express, and the main character down to the Protectorate.

The main character awakens without wings or a halo and finds himself/herself rescued from the base of the waterfall in Angel Falls. He/She comes to learn a little about his/her fall on the great earthquake that happened at the same time. Having lost most of his/her Celestrian powers, but not his/her memory or the ability to see deceased and magical spirits, he/she travels about trying to find a way back to the Observatory. During an adventure to reconnect his/her village to the nearby castle after landslides caused by the great earthquake, the main character finds the broken down celestial train and its fairy driver, Stella. Stella promises to help the main character return to the Observatory if he/she can prove he/she is one.

By helping humans, the main character gathers benevolessence, though he/she can no longer see it. His/her ability to aid and protect the humans convinces Stella too, restoring power to the Starflight Express with the benevolessences, helps the main character return to the Observatory. Upon his/her return, the main character discovers that the fyggs have also fallen to the Protectorate and that many Celestrians have been dispatched to find them, though no one has yet returned except the main character. His/her prayers to become a Celestrian again are unanswered but a vision is presented to the main character as he/she stands before the World Tree. Taking the vision as a sign, the main character is charged to return to the Protectorate to help collect the Fyggs.

As the main character travels the Protectorate in search of the fyggs, he/she finds out that fyggs have the ability to grant those who eat it any wish. Unfortunately, the wishes are not always fulfilled in the way they were expected and those who eat the fruit succumb to strange and demented ways. It is the hero's mission to travel from land to land, finding and battling those possessed by the Fygg's power. As he/she defeats their twisted forms, the main character sets the possessed free and regains the fyggs one by one. At one point the Starflight Express is attacked by the hero's master, Aquila, who escapes with the fyggs. The hero then crashes outside a isolated village, Wormwood Creek, where they learn of an organization called the Gittish Empire and also of another Celestrian named Corvus, who was Aquila's master. The hero travels to the city of Upover where they fight a legendary dragon named Greygnarl. After defeating Greygnarl and making a pact with him, the hero descends the mountain to see that the city is under attack by monsters that claim to be soldiers of the Gittish Empire, even though it was demolished by Greygnarl over 3 centuries ago. The hero then travels to Gittingham Palace, where they fight King Godwyn, who just killed Aquila before the hero's eyes. King Godwyn is killed, but danger still lurks underneath the palace in a place called the Oubliette. The hero encounters Corvus here, but he is demented and consumed with rage. Corvus escapes the Oubliette to the Realm of the Almighty. Eventually, the hero learns that Corvus is responsible for the attacks on the Yggdrasil and the Starflight Express, the hero eats a Fygg and turns into a mortal, because Celestrians can not act against Celestrians. The hero then travels to the Realm of the Almighty and confronts Corvus, who escapes and transforms the Realm of the Almighty into the Realm of the Mighty. The hero then fights Corvus for real and defeats him, but it matters not, for he plans on destroying the world with his rage but is averted just in time by his sweethearts ghost, Serena. Corvus then realizes his failings and wrongdoings. Serena and Corvus then disappear. The hero is then furthermore tasked by Celestria, the daughter of the Almighty, to forevermore be the sole guardian of the Protectorate.

Development

“	We make the game [Dragon Quest IX] to be quite hard. It's harder than any of the previous titles, and the enemies are also powerful... We strengthened the bosses, stuff like that.	”
—Yuji Horii, according to Brian Ashcraft[4]

Dragon Quest IX was primarily designed around the idea of attracting a wider overseas market by "giving the game a more action-oriented premise than previous games in the series.^[12] Shinji Hatano, General Manager for Nintendo's Marketing Division, believes that Dragon Quest IX, which he says is a quality title, not only could, but should, sell more copies in the United States and Europe.^[13] In addition to the overseas market, the entire game is designed around the multi-player aspect. Minor aspects like party talk, which was in previous titles, and only a few pre-defined non-player characters and more significant things like the quest system which can often be taken multiple times and are presumably designed around getting friends to help with specific missions. Other changes, like the lack of random battles also are structured toward this goal, but on a more tangential level.^[8]

In mid-2006, Dragon Quest series composer Koichi Sugiyama confirmed that Dragon Quest IX was in development. He said, "I'm not sure when Dragon Quest IX will be released, but it seems that progress is continually being made. I'm personally excited."^[14] On December 12, 2006, during a press conference celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Dragon Quest franchise, Square Enix announced that Dragon Quest IX would be released exclusively for the Nintendo DS handheld video game console, making it the first main Dragon Quest title to debut on a handheld.

The Japanese release of Dragon Quest IX was subsequently delayed from 2007 to 2008. The company cited the need for more time to make a better game as reason for the delay.^[15] At the 2008 Tokyo Game Show, a new trailer was shown at the Square Enix booth which showed a glimpse of the changes made to the gameplay and graphics. At the end of the video, a confirmation of the release date (set for March 2009) was unveiled. Square Enix released another new trailer for the game, showing various aspects of the storyline, boss battles, along with cutscenes; the end of the trailer showed a then-correct release date for March 28, 2009, along with a price point of ¥5,980, which still stands.^[16]

On February 12, 2009, after having delayed the release of its quarterly financial by a week, Square Enix announced the game would be delayed once again to a Japanese release on July 11 of the same year. The game's release delay worried Final Fantasy fans, who were told by Square Enix president Yoichi Wada that Dragon Quest IX's delay may affect Final Fantasy XIII's release, stating that he "[could] not say there [would not] be an effect."^[17]

Dragon Quest IX was designed to be the hardest Dragon Quest game yet. The rationale is that the developers said, "people can always find out information on the internet — like that's part of the game experience." In addition, the game has only one save slot.^[4] Ryutaro Ichimura, producer of Dragon Quest IX, clarified the reason explaining that there is not enough space on the system given the amount of freedom the game allows. Instead, the extra slot is used for a backup in case of battery failure.^[7]

Also included in the game was the chance to experience boss battles from previous Dragon Quest titles such as fighting Baramos from Dragon Warrior III and Dhoulmagus from Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King.^[18]

Release

Months after its Japanese release, Square Enix trademarked the name Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies, as well as corresponding titles for the four other main languages of Western Europe (French, German, Italian and Spanish), confirming that the title will be released there.^[19] It also registered the English trademark in the United States confirming its North American release around the same time.

Nintendo expected a boost in its DSi sales with the simultaneously timed launch of the red DSi in Japan,^[20] and reports show an increase of 152% in Nintendo DS sales during the first weeks of Dragon Quest IX.^[21] Square-Enix expected not to fare as well despite the record sales. After a last minute delay in the release date from March 28, 2009 to July 11, 2009 Square-Enix dropped its expected yearly earnings by 17 percent and profits by 62.5 percent. The company hoped to bolster the worldwide appeal of the series with the redesign of the game.^[12]

According to Square Enix, 4.29 million copies of the game were sold in Japan as of March 2010.^[22] Square-Enix aims to have 5 million copies of the game shipped, though the company didn't specify if the target was for Japan only or worldwide.

Square Enix announced on May 19, 2010 that Dragon Quest IX would be released in North America on July 11, 2010; exactly one year after the Japanese release. The European version followed on July 23, 2010.

Japan

Dragon Quest IX shipped with over 2 million pre-order sales.^[20][23] While the official release date for Dragon Quest IX in Japan was July 11, 2009,^[17] some retailers had already shipped orders; one such dealer asked its customers to not play the game until the official release date.^[24] In spite the large number of pre-orders and additional release shipments by Square Enix, lines still formed for the release.^[20][23] Within a two-day period, the title had sold 2,318,932 copies out of an estimated three million copies that had been shipped. Some analysts say that three million may be too conservative and expect five million copies sold in Japan alone with large overseas sales expectations that could break previous Dragon Quest sales records.^[20][21][25] The sale was the largest post-2000 debut week sale which broken the record previously held by the former title, Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King and with over 4 million copies shipped Dragon Quest IX is as of September 25, 2009 on track for becoming the most popular and best-selling Nintendo DS game ever.^[20][26][27] Shortly before the official release a malware ROM claiming to be the Dragon Quest IX ROM was released on 2chan. Instead of the actual game, it was a hentai slideshow that bricks the Nintendo DS.^[28]

The saturation of Dragon Quest IX in Japan has, as of October 30, 2009, increased the number of Passing-By Connections because the number of people carrying a DS on them outside home increased. According to Shigeru Miyamoto, General Manager for Nintendo's Entertainment Analysis and Development Division, this development has lead Nintendo to figure out more ways of creating something unique for this.^[29]

North America and Europe

On July 10, 2010, one day before the official release, Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii visited the Nintendo World Store to commemorate the release of Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies in North America at a special launch event.^[30]

The North American release of Dragon Quest IX was heavily promoted by Nintendo - the company ran commercials featuring Seth Green in theaters and on television,^[31] featured Dragon Quest IX for two weeks on Nintendo Week, and sponsored special Dragon Quest IX events at select GameStop, Best Buy, and Simon Mall locations from July 31, 2010 through August 2010 where players could obtain exclusive downloadable treasure maps.^[32] Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies was also the subject of two segments of Iwata Asks, where Satoru Iwata interviewed Yuji Horii and Ryutaro Ichimura concerning the North American release of Dragon Quest IX.^[33] The August 2010 issue of Nintendo Power also featured Dragon Quest IX on the cover.^[34]

In the United Kingdom, Nintendo of Europe held a promotional event on November 13, 2010 in Covent Garden, London. Set up as a midieval village, the event featured demo stations for the game, a leaderboard where Nintendo employees tracked those with the most play time, and an appearance by Jedward. Slime plushies were given away at the event, and players could add John and Edward Grimes' in-game characters to their inns via tag mode, and receive the Nokturnus treasure map.^[35]

Excluding pre-orders, Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies was the top-selling DS game in the first two weeks since its release, according to Gamasutra and Amazon.com.^[36] It was the eighth best-selling game of July 2010 in the NPD charts, with 132,000 units.^[37] As of the ending of Nintendo's fiscal year 2010, Dragon Quest IX sold 1.02 millions copies in the United States and Europe.^[38]

Cultural impact

The ability to exchange treasure maps with others has allowed the game to act as a catalyst for more social interaction. Patty's Pub, an inn from the game, has opened as a tourist destination in Akihabara after the release of this game to help facilitate this by having known meet-up locations where players can exchange treasure maps, specifically one particular map where characters who appear once during normal gameplay. As of 2010^[update], people would make Akihabara a tourist destination when visiting Tokyo just to get a valuable map.^[39]

Reception

Dragon Quest IX
Sentinels of the Starry Skies
Aggregate scores
Aggregator	Score
GameRankings	87.86%[40]
Metacritic	87/100 [41]
Review scores
Publication	Score
Game Informer	8/10 [42]
IGN	8/10 [43]
Official Nintendo Magazine	90%[44]
Famitsū	40 / 40[45]
Awards Entity Award Gamasutra #1 Handheld game of 2010 Nintendo Power Best DS Game of the Year (2010) Best RPG (2010)

On January 1, 2009, Dragon Quest IX was the most anticipated game in Japan according to a monthly poll conducted by Famitsu magazine. It displaced Final Fantasy XIII from the top spot after 15 months.^[46]

At the game's launch a series of highly negative user reviews were posted on Amazon Japan, particularly regarding Stella the gyaru-ish fairy.^[47]

Days after the game's release, Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu gave the game a score of 40/40, making Dragon Quest IX the tenth game to achieve a perfect score.^[45] The game was also voted as the best game of 2009 in Dengeki online's reader poll.^[48] Jeremy Parish, editor for 1UP, gave the game an overall positive preview. He noted the game's design toward the local multi-player aspect, though had yet to try it. Instead his preview focused on the single-player gameplay. While he enjoyed it and felt it still stayed true to the heart of a Dragon Quest game, he noted that hardcore fans may still not like the amount and type of changes, though he did not give specifics. Parish also noted that while the graphics quality was not up to the same level as the previous title it still was quality work.^[8]

Awards

Dragon Quest IX has received several awards. It was received well at E3 2010 amongst the media was and given a nomination for Best DS Game of the Show by GameTrailers.^[49] It is listed by Gamasutra as the #1 handheld game for 2010.^[50] GameSpot listed it as the best DS game of 2010.^[51] Dragon Quest IX also won the 2010 Nintendo Power awards of Best DS Game of the Year and Best RPG.^[52]

Notes and references

1. ^ Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King's English translation is the first time a graphical menu system is used. The Japanese version retains the traditional text-based menu system.

1. ^ Nintendo Power (Future US) 254: 13. May 2010. 
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3. ^ Ashcraft, Brian (2010-05-20). "Dragon Quest IX Enters The Guinness Book of World Records". Kotaku. http://kotaku.com/5543277/dragon-quest-ix-enters-the-guinness-book-of-world-records. Retrieved 2010-07-14. 
4. ^ ^{a b c d} Ashcraft, Brian (2009-07-06). "Dragon Quest IX Is Gonna Be Hard, Yo". Kotaku. http://kotaku.com/5308120/dragon-quest-ix-is-gonna-be-hard-yo. Retrieved 2009=07=10. 
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External links

• Official Dragon Quest IX European website
• Official Dragon Quest IX North American Website
• Official Dragon Quest IX Japanese Website
• Official Dragon Quest IX Facebook
• Teaser Site The Official Dragon Quest IX Teaser Website from Level 5
• Dragon Quest IX game guide and database